Example: Tone Document

Business Email Voice

A reference for writing clear, professional, human emails. Use this as a Skill reference file alongside a SKILL.md that handles email drafting.

1. Core Voice

The voice is direct, warm, and professional. It treats the reader as an intelligent peer. It avoids jargon, avoids filler, and avoids the formulaic openers and closers that make most business emails forgettable.

The test: read the email aloud. If it sounds like something a real person would say to another real person in a meeting, the voice is right. If it sounds like it was generated by software or written by someone in a hurry to sound corporate, the voice is wrong.

2. Register

Three registers, picked by context:

  • Casual: internal team emails, established client relationships, quick replies. Contractions throughout. Short sentences. Personality present.

  • Professional: most client emails, external recipients, formal business contexts. Contractions used selectively. Slightly longer sentences allowed. Warm but structured.

  • Formal: legal documents, executive summaries, contracts. Contractions avoided. Clean, linear, precise. Personality dialled back.

Default to professional. Switch up or down based on context.

3. Sentence Rhythm

Alternate longer and shorter sentences. Longer sentences carry the reasoning. Shorter sentences land the point.

Do not flatten everything into short sentences (sounds choppy and adolescent). Do not stack long sentences (loses the reader). Aim for roughly one short declarative sentence for every one or two longer ones.

4. Vocabulary

Use

  • Plain words. "Use" not "utilise". "Help" not "facilitate". "About" not "regarding".

  • Specific words. "Wednesday at 3pm" not "later this week". "Three options" not "several options".

  • Direct verbs. "I will send" not "I will be sending".

Avoid

  • Corporate filler: "leverage", "unlock", "synergy", "seamless", "end-to-end", "supercharge", "game-changer", "disrupt", "best-in-class", "world-class", "holistic".

  • LinkedIn-isms: "deep dive", "unpack", "hot take", "delve", "let that sink in", "here's the thing".

  • Empty enthusiasm: "absolutely", "amazing", "incredible", "thrilled", "delighted".

  • Filler openers: "I hope this email finds you well", "Just touching base", "Hope you're well".

  • Filler closers: "Looking forward to hearing from you", "Please do not hesitate to reach out", "Thoughts?" as a standalone.

5. Punctuation and Formatting

  • British English spelling (organisation, recognise, behaviour, colour).

  • Spaced hyphens for parenthetical asides ( - ), never em dashes.

  • Commas freely, to create natural pauses.

  • One exclamation mark per email at most, only in genuine warmth ("Great to hear!"). Never for emphasis on an argument.

  • No emojis in client emails. Sparingly in internal emails if the relationship allows.

  • No bold or italics in email body. Use them only in formal documents.

  • No bullet points unless there are more than four parallel items. Otherwise write as natural language ("three things: X, Y, and Z").

6. Email Structure by Type

6.1 First Outreach (Cold or Warm)

  1. One sentence connecting you to the recipient (mutual contact, event, their work).

  2. The reason for the email, stated directly.

  3. What you are proposing or suggesting.

  4. A low-pressure next step.

Five to ten sentences total. Lead with the recipient's world, not your credentials.

Anti-pattern: opening with a paragraph about your company before getting to why you are writing.

6.2 Reply / Ongoing Thread

  1. Brief acknowledgement of their point (not a summary of their email).

  2. Your substantive response, addressing their points in order.

  3. Clear next step or confirmation.

If there are more than four discrete points, use a numbered list. Otherwise prose.

Anti-pattern: "Thanks for your email. Just to recap what you said..." Don't restate what they wrote. They wrote it.

6.3 Internal Email

No preamble. First sentence is the point. State the action needed at the end, or say "FYI, no action needed".

Anti-pattern: "Hope you're well! Just wanted to drop a quick note about..."

6.4 Delivering Unwelcome News

  1. State the news in the first or second sentence. Do not bury it.

  2. Acknowledge impact briefly, without over-apologising.

  3. Explain the reasoning (one or two sentences).

  4. Offer a practical next step or alternative.

Warm but direct. Do not soften to the point of ambiguity. The recipient should know exactly what has happened by the end of sentence two.

Anti-pattern: burying the news in the third paragraph after extensive context.

6.5 Acknowledging a Mistake

  1. State what went wrong, clearly, in the first sentence.

  2. One sentence of context (a fact, not an excuse).

  3. State what you are doing to fix it.

  4. Close with what happens next.

Keep short. The directness is the apology. Do not grovel or over-explain.

Anti-pattern: "I want to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused..." (formulaic and hollow).

7. Openings

Emails do not need hooks. They need context.

  • First outreach: "We met briefly at [event]." / "Sam mentioned you were looking at [topic]." / "I saw your piece on [specific thing] and wanted to follow up on one point."

  • Reply: "Thanks for this, a few thoughts on the points you raised." / "Good to hear. On the timeline question..."

  • Internal: "Quick one: the import is done but three records need review."

Never open with:

  • "I hope this email finds you well"

  • "Just checking in"

  • "I wanted to reach out"

  • "I hope you are having a great week"

8. Closings

Every email closes with either:

  • A clear next step ("Let me know if Thursday works and I'll send a calendar invite.")

  • A clear statement that no action is needed ("No action needed your end, just wanted to flag it.")

Never close with:

  • "Looking forward to hearing from you" (empty)

  • "Please do not hesitate to reach out" (formal and stiff)

  • "Thoughts?" as a standalone (too abrupt)

  • "Best regards" without a clear next step preceding it

9. Subject Lines

Subject lines should be specific and informative. The recipient should know what the email is about before opening it.

  • Good: "Wednesday workshop: agenda and prep" / "Q3 invoice: small query" / "Intro to Sam re Tuesday's panel"

  • Bad: "Quick question" / "Hi" / "Following up" / "Touching base"

10. Failure Mode Checklist

Run every draft against this before sending. If any item is true, revise.

  • [ ] Does the email open with "I hope this email finds you well" or equivalent filler?

  • [ ] Does the email close with "Looking forward to hearing from you" without a specific next step?

  • [ ] Does any sentence contain a banned word from Section 4?

  • [ ] Are there em dashes instead of spaced hyphens?

  • [ ] Is the spelling American instead of British?

  • [ ] Are all sentences roughly the same length (rhythm absent)?

  • [ ] Is the news, if unwelcome, buried below the second sentence?

  • [ ] Is the next step missing or vague?

  • [ ] Does the subject line tell the recipient nothing specific?

  • [ ] Does the email sound like it was written by software (formulaic, hollow, generic)?

If any of these are true, the email needs another pass before sending.